Door lock



E6, 14 i igc v g -23, WEEKS 2456,22??? DOOR LOCK Filed Jan. 14 1946 IN V EN TOR.

LURE/V R WEE/(5 BY WWW Patented Dec. 14, 1948 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE noon LOCK Loren R. WeekaCoeur dAlene, Idaho Application January 14, 1946, Serial No. 641,030

' 3 Claims. (Cl. 292- 33) My invention relates to door locks and is particularly directed to a locking mechanism by which two adjacent doors such as the front and rear doors of an automobile will be locked so as to prevent accidental opening of one of the doors so long as the other door is locked.

In automobiles there is always a problem with the car doors of a rear door being unlocked and swinging open because of children, and such accidental openings of the rear door often-times result in fatal accidents. It is the principal purpose of my invention toprovide a simple control for the door lock-s whereby the rear door can be locked by the same means that locks the front door and whereby the unlocking of the front door will automatically result in release of the lock for the rear door. The locking device may be applied to a car body regardless of whether both doors are hinged at the forward edge or the front door is hinged at the forward edge and the rear door is hinged at the back edge. The most common construction has the rear door hinged at the back edge, and this is also the most dangerous construction, because of the fact that the rear door, when swinging open while the car is in movement, will swing open violently due to the air pressure as soon as it is far enough open to catch in the air stream alongside the body. My invention, therefore, is shown in detail as applied to the type of door mounting where the front door is hinged at the front edge and the rear door is hinged at the rear edge.

The nature and advantages of my invention will appear more fully from the following description and the accompanying drawings, wherein a preferred form of the invention is shown. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and description are illustrative only and should not be considered as limiting the invention except insofar as it is limited by the claims.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on the line l---! of Figure 2 through the side walls and doors of a car body to which my invention is applied;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a sectional View taken on the line 33 of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a fragmentary detailed sectional view illustrating how the parts appear in normal unlocked position; and

Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 1 showing the parts arranged for two doors hinged at the front.

- Referring now in detail to the drawings. and particularly to Figure 1, the numeral 5 indicates the front door of a car body, the numeral 6 is a wall portion of the body intermediate the front and rear doors thereof, and the numeral 1 indicates a portion of the rear door. In this con' struction the front door 5 is hinged at its front edge while the rear door I is hinged at its rear edge. For locking the front door in closed position, .I-provide a sliding lock bolt 8 which is mounted in the front door between two guides 9 and H). The bolt 8 has integral thereon a rack H,-the teeth of which mesh with a gear l2. The gear I2 is journalled by a shaft 13 in the front door and a handle I4 is mounted on the shaft l3 inside the car body. By rotating the handle 14, the lock bolt 8 may be caused to slide in the guides 9 and I0 so as to proiect through the edge wall 15 of the door 5 and the edge wall It of the wall portion 6 to lock the front door.

A look bolt I1 is mounted in the wall portion 6 by upper and lower guides l8 and I9. The bolt H is adapted to project through the rear edge wall 20 of the wall portion 6 to engage in an aperture 2| provided in the edge wall 22 of the door 1.

In order that the lock bolt I! may be controlled from the lock bolt 8, I provide on the bolt II a spring finger 23 which cooperates with the guide l8 to connect the bolts 8 and I! when the bolt 8 is moved to position to press the bolt l1 into its locked position. A notch 24 is provided near the end of the bolt 8 and the spring finger 23 has a down turned tip 25 for engaging in the notch 24.

The operation of the parts just described is as follows: When the doors are to be unlocked, the bolt 8 is retracted by means of the rack H and gear l2 and the bolt I1 is positioned also in retracted position with the spring finger 23 extending beyond the guide [8 and raised above the notch 24. Now in order to lock the doors, the bolt 8 is moved to the right and in its movement it will engage the end of the bolt I! so as to move the bolt H with it. Bolt 8, of course, locks its door before engaging the bolt l1. As the bolt I1 is moved to the right, the spring finger 23 will be depressed by the guide l8, causing the down turned tip 25 to engage in the notch 24. Thus, in the locked position the right hand end of the bolt 8 will be between the guides I8 and I9 and the bolt I! will be extended into the front edge wall 22 of the rear door I. When it is desired to unlock the doors, the bolt 8 is withdrawn by rotation of the gear l2. Because of the engagement of the tip 25 and the notch 24, the bolt I1 will be withdrawn a so until the spring finger 23 is freed from the guide l8, at which point the bolt I! will be stopped. Further retraction of the bolt 8 is necessary to unlock the door 5.

It Will be recognized, of course, that this looking mechanism is in addition to the normal door latches provided on the car doors and because of its construction the door lock cannot be made to lock the vdoors until both front and rear doors are in closed position.

In Figure 5 the construction is such that the rear door 1 is hinged at its front edge to an intermediate wall portion 6'. In this construction the rear bolt I 1 is housed entirely within the rear door 1'. Likewise, the guides l8 and I9 are .located within the rear door. The front bolt 8" has to be long enough and have .suifioien t travel to enable it to extend through the wall portion 6 into the rear door 1 for interlocking engage- I ment with the spring finger 23'. The functioning of the locking mechanism is essentially the same in both types of installation.

It is deemed to be evident from the foregoing description that 'I have provided an efiectlve positive door locking mechanism by which the front and rear doors of a car body can be locked in closed position by a single control handle in one of the doors. This control handle naturally is placed in the front door where it is accessible to the driver of the vehicle. The locking mechanism'has the advantage that it cannot be utilized unless the doors are in closed position so that the normal opening and closing of the doors is accomplished entirely independently of this locking mechanism. There is no danger of damage to the doors or to the locking mechanism by the inadvertent operation of the locking mechanism. Having thus described my invention, I claim: 1. In a latching arrangement for securing two adjacent vehicle doors separated by a narrow wall portion containing a keeper and the first door containing a bolt for sai-d'keeper, and an aligned bolt projectable into an associated keeper in the second door, the improvement which comprises a spring finger on one bolt extending beyond it toward the other bolt, the other bolt having a seat for the spring finger whereby the spring finger when depressed into said seat connects the bolts together for movement as a unit, and a guide member adjacent to the bolt carrying the spring finger, positioned to keep the spring finger depressed except when the bolt carrying the spring finger is withdrawn from its keeper.

2. In a latching arrangement for securing two adjacent vehicle doors separated by a narrow wall portion, the doors and wall portion having bolt guides and bolts slidable in said guides and means to move one bolt endwise, that improvement which comprises a spring finger on one bolt extending beyond it, a "shoulder on the other bolt behind which said spring finger may engage when the bolts are abutted, and means bearing on said spring finger to hold the finger and shoulder in interlocking relationship except in the non-locking position of the bolt carrying the spring finger,

3. In a latching arrangement for securing two adjacent vehicle doors separated by a narrow wall portion, the doors and wall portion having bolt guides and bolts slidable in said guides and means to .move one .bolt endwise, that improvement which comprises a spring pressed latch on one bolt adapted to engage a seat in the other bolt when the bolts are in endwise engagement, said guides including means to hold the :latch in said seat except when the latch carrying bolt is in non-locking position.

LOREN R. WEEKS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,221,529 Schoenheit Nov. 12, 1940 2,242,133 Kemp May 13, 1941 

